Court to deliver recounts decision tomorrow

A court will rule tomorrow on a request by the Nationalist Party to have recounts on the eighth and 13th districts. The decision was taken after a lengthy sitting presided by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri. The PN lost both districts to Labour for a handful of votes. It is insisting there were mistakes in the counting of each district - a bundle of 50 votes was mistakenly credited to Michael Asciak instead of Claudette Buttigieg Pace in the eighth, and 10 votes on the 13th were unaccounted for. Lawyers John Bonello and Therese Commodini Cachia are representing the Nationalist Party, Pawlu Lia the Labour Party and Prof. Ian Refalo and Mark Refalo the Electoral Commission. Dr Lia filed a judicial request on behalf of Justyne Caruana, the last candidate to be elected on the 13th district, asking to intervene. The request was accepted. Dr Refalo explained that Frederick Azzopardi (13th district) and Claudette Buttigieg Pace (8th district) would be elected when extra seats were credited to the PN to achieve its proportional representation in parliament. Mr Azzopardi would be elected first, followed by Claudette Buttigieg...